a short distance below Anthony's Nose, however, it continues decidedly narrow, until, at the very termination of this portion of its course, a place called Verplanck's Point, its banks approach quite close together, being only one mile apart. Here was located the famous King's Ferry of the Revolution, an extremely important line of inter-

PHYSICAL

DESCRIPTION

COUNTY

communication between the patriot forces of the East and the West; and on the opposite bank stood the fortress of Stony Point, the scene of Wayne's midnight exploit. Just below Verplanek's the river suddenly widens, forming the magnificent Haverstraw Bay. This, in

NORTHWARD

VIEW

TO INDIAN

HEAD

(OPPOSITE

YONKERS).

its greatest expansion, attains a breadth of oyer four miles. Farther down the prominent peninsula, of Croton Point juts out from the Westchester shore a distance of a mile and a half. Next the river spreads out into another noble bay, called the Tappan Sea. which extends to near Dobbs Ferry, with an average breadth of three miles. From there it flows majestically on to the ocean with no marked

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

variations of width, the banks having a mean distance apart of a little more than a mile. From Anthony's Nose, the northernmost point of Westchester County on the Hudson, to the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the southernmost, is a distance, as the crow flies, of thirty-four miles. The breadth of the county varies from twenty-five to eight and one-half miles. Throughout its entire extent along the Hudson the Westchester shore rises abruptly from the river edge to elevations seldom less than one hundred feet. Nowhere, however, does the Westchester bank ascend precipitously in the manner, or even at all resembling the manner, of the Palisade formation on the western shore. The acclivity is often quite sharp, but everywhere admits of gradual approach, for both pedestrians and carriages, to the high ridges.